EMU Jumpstart Program helps set world record for reading

YPSILANTI – Eastern Michigan University student volunteers have helped set a world record for reading.

Approximately 17 students from EMU read “The Little Engine That Could,” to about 160 local elementary school children at several locations in Ypsilanti Aug. 24. It was part of the Jumpstart Program’s Read for the Record nationwide effort to read the same book to a record number of kids at the same time.

About 150,000 preregistered for the national event, which was designed to bring attention and interest to improving literary and language skills.

“Early learning experiences are crucial to the growth and development of young children,” said Christie Cadmus, program coordinator at Eastern Michigan University. “Jumpstart’s Read for the Record provides opportunities for everyone in the United States to support quality early education and to engage in the powerful learning experiences that Jumpstart models in its classrooms every day.”

Local sponsors included Starbucks Arborland, the Briarwood Mall, 826 Michigan, Dorothy's Discovery Center, Adventure Center and the Pinckney Community Library.

Jumpstart is a national early education organization that works toward the day every child in America enters school prepared to succeed. Through extraordinary attention in yearlong one-to-one relationships, Jumpstart inspires children to learn, adults to teach, families to get involved, and communities to progress together. Headquartered in Boston, Jumpstart pairs 2,500 trained adults one-to-one with preschool children in need of assistance. During the 2005-2006 program year, Jumpstart served 10,000 children in 60 communities across 22 states, in partnership with 225 Head Start and other early learning centers across the country.

Cadmus said that about 60,000 books have been given out this year nationwide.

Eastern Michigan University is a public, comprehensive
university that offers programs in the arts, sciences and professions.
EMU prepares students with the intellectual skills and practical experiences
to succeed in their career and lives, and to be better citizens.